What are the benefits of a fanless NUC case ?
Running rock on a 7i5 standard spec.
Is it worth the change ?
Is the NUC in your listening room? If so, can you hear it and does this bother you?
No… in a spare room.
Is noise the only benefit ?
In the computers world the better it is cooled the better it works (and more important it lasts)! If your computer is not in your listening room and the noise doesn’t bother you in the spare room, then uses the casing that best facilitates cooling.
If you wanted to use the HDMI output of the NUC to deliver multichannel to a surround receiver, then a fanless case would be less noisy in the listening room.
In that situation, there is no benefit other than aesthetic.
If it is possible AVOID all kinds of fan!
Fan = dust (your computer becomes the vacuum cleaner…)
Dust = troubles, all kinds of troubles.
Have noticed the build up of dust after only 2 weeks of running around the NUC,let alone inside .Never thought of that.
My fanless NUC (5i5) is still clinically clean inside, operates in the low to mid 40’s even when DSPing to two times DSD, and can be moved anywhere I need it to go, in my listening space if I want or next to my ISP router where silence is equally important. I understand the benefits of good cooling but a NUC only really cools the CPU anyway. The rest is taken care of with modern power management with cool running switched mode supplies on board. My NUC has a thermal pad between the M.2 card and the case too. I think the Akasa cases take care of what is essential to cool.
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